STATE MERCURY TESTS MAY SPUR NEW RULES FOR NEVADA MINE EMISSIONS PACT

State officials in Idaho and Utah are conducting tests to try to establish the cause of significant mercury depositions in their state, a development that environmentalists say could force EPA to include stricter emissions control requirements in a voluntary pact with Nevada gold mines, which the activists blame for the depositions. The two states' environmental departments have been unable so far to directly link high levels of mercury in fish tissue to emissions from Nevada mining operations, but the issue...